The Crown

Crowned In Terror

Metal Blade

Ho-Lee Crap! These guys put the “B” in “brutal,” in the form of a big boot straight to my buns and upside my head at the same time! I love getting a record like this, one that is completely excellent and awesome from start to finish! This is truly a 10 out of 10, in all facets!

The Crown plays fast and ultra heavy death/thrash metal that never lets up. The highlight of the band is the band itself: the guitars are warm and completely seething with molten lava, the drums are totally out of this world, with blast beats that actually make sense, and the vocals, by ex-At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg, are unbridled and just about perfect for this type of completely aggressive music.

Someone I was talking to was trying to tell me that The Crown’s music doesn’t make sense because all it is is just a bunch of guys who are busy trying to sound brutal and not worrying about structuring quality songs; he couldn’t have been more wrong. In this kid’s favor (he said there were too many blast beats), there may be a few too many blast beats on Crowned In Terror, but who gives a crap! The rest of the instrumentation and incredible vocals make up for that! This is a fascinatingly tough chunk of death metal, the quality of which is in the top one-percent of all metal releases in the history of the world! I know people will say I’m crazy, but I think Crowned In Terror is better than their Deathrace King album; there’s just more power this time around.

Obviously, if you like music that will make you want to punch walls and scream at the top of your lungs, give this one a try. If you listen to corny corporate metal (Disturbed, Slipknot, et al), you really need to get away from that crap and step outside of your small box. The Crown isn’t such a hugely popular band for no reason; these guys rock 110% and no one can deny their sheer power. Absolutely amazing!

Editors remind Orlando audiences that it was the UK that birthed their brand of darkly deep indie rock. Jen Cray couldn’t help but wonder if they were ripping off Joy Division, or Interpol’s interpretation of Joy Division.